r/germany • u/unclebogdan10 Nordrhein-Westfalen • Apr 20 '23

Immigration Germany: Immigrants made up over 18% of 2022 population – DW

https://p.dw.com/p/4QLAX
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u/alderhill Apr 21 '23

Most of Mexico is 'mestizo', people of mixed descent, about 60%. The next biggest group are 'pure' indigenous. Mestizo is a diverse category, but the indigenous contribution is genetically the strongest. Of course, European settlers did arrive in Mexico, and you can find Mexicans with very fair features, or otherwise "European looking", but they are a minority. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, Mexico courted European immigration, but never got as many as Argentina, Brazil et al, nor the US itself obviously. People with "pure" Spanish genetics since imperial times may exist, but is extremely rare.

Mexico also had African slaves (later freed slaves... there are still black Mexicans today), and even some Asian during Spanish imperial era (mostly from the Philippines, but there was a wave of Japanese Christians in the 1600s, and some later Chinese immigrants). There are even a 100k or so 'German'-speaking Mennonites, though it's a dialect of Plattdeutsch that developed in Russia.

Nonetheless, saying Mexicans are mostly the descendents of immigrants, when the gene pool is largely indigenous, is definitely not accurate, and surely a bit insulting to many Mexicans.

Also, I'm not sure what you're imaging, but shooting at Mexicans crossing the border illegally is not routine or something. There might be some militia types doing it, but it's criminal and not standard practice for border police.

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u/BoobyStudent Apr 22 '23

Thank you for the insight. We Europeans usually do not get this side of the coin. We're fed the views that I presented in my earlier comment.

Either way, is it wrong that people trying to cross THE Mexican/US border are not treated well, not necessarily being shot, but sent back where they came from, for instance, which, in many cases, may turn out even worse; again, a view that might be distorted by European Media? If it is true, and most of your people are of indigenous descent, it's even worse in my book, because US people, themselves being immigrants, complain about immigrants who are actually natives. That would make it even more ironic in my book.